Last Updated on May 10, 2024 by Teri Rehkopf
Measurable Prepping Is Crucial to Your Survival
When applying S.M.A.R.T. goals to your prepping efforts, you must focus on ensuring that your actions are measurable. If you’re randomly prepping and stocking up on things, you won’t ever know if or when you’re sufficiently ready to handle a SHTF event.
So, how do you measure your survival prepping efforts? The first way is to calculate your family’s needs. Many people fail to do this, but it helps you list everything you should acquire before a survival event.
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You must consider the age, size, and gender of the individuals and pets for whom you are stocking up on supplies. For example, a bug-out bag for a 5-year-old will be very different from that you would purchase for a grown man.
Read this first S.M.A.R.T Plans for Survival Prepping, Part I
It’s the same with your first aid products and the food you need to stock up on. The calorie needs of a child are very different from those of an adult in your family and should be calculated appropriately but with an eye toward growth in the future.
You must also consider any medical measurements crucial to the survival or good health of the individuals in your care. You may need to have certain things on hand, such as wound dressings, medications, prescriptions, etc., so knowing how much you will need is an important fact to consider.
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You also have to factor in the amount of everything you have to purchase that is not necessarily based on the individuals you buy for. For example, you need to measure the amount of ammunition you have on hand, the number of sleeping bags and tents you have, and so on.
You may need to measure the distances between locations. This might be the distance from your home to a bug-out spot or the distance between one natural source of water and the next.
You also need to note the dates in some cases. These types of measurements help you decide when to rotate your supplies and when to use them so that they don’t go to waste.
Actionable Steps Are Important in Every Area of Survival
Many people have good intentions with their survival-prepping efforts but let themselves down because they never go beyond surface-level plans. For example, they may be good at broad, vague goals, such as saying, “If we can’t stay here, we’ll simply bug out.”
Making broad statements like this without doing anything more specific regarding planning will cause your family to be caught off guard in a real survival event. You want to have actionable steps for each family member to know beforehand.
For example, in the case of bugging out, the action steps should include finding information that would help them decide whether to stay or leave, immediately grabbing their bug-out bag, taking a specific form of transportation or leaving on foot, where they should go, what they should set up first when they reach their campsite and more.
You may also have different tasks for which each individual is responsible. You need to have the instructions spelled out for each person and learned without having to stop and find the step she wants them to take.
It’s not enough to have tools and supplies on hand, either. The people in your survival group, such as yourself, your spouse, and your children, I need to know how to use the survival products that you have taken in time to stock up on for them.
For example, if you have purchased a solar cooker, but no one in your family has ever bothered to open it, learn how to use it, or practice with it, cooking a meal quickly and easily without trial and error will be hard.
The same could be said for first aid gear. Your family needs to have actionable steps for what to do in the event that someone suffers from a cut, burn, broken limb, etc.
Action steps are good for every area of your survival planning. For example, if you have to purify water and you don’t happen to have any tablets or a water purification straw, you need to know the best steps to purify it using sand, charcoal, etc.
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Because some steps are easy to forget if not utilized, you may want to print out the instructions you feel most imperative to your survival and even laminate a copy for each family member.
Remember that your spouse or children may become separated from you, so actionable steps are essential for everyone – not just one person. This is not something where each person has knowledge that they are responsible for – survival is something every person has to master for times when they may be on their own.
Realistic Planning Will Help You Overcome Survival Obstacles
Some people aren’t very realistic with their survival plans. You need to prioritize your planning in a S.M.A.R.T. manner by adopting a realistic approach to what you stock up on, what you prepare for, and how you plan to react.
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Start by thinking of what’s most likely to happen to you and your loved ones. If you live in a hurricane, tornado, fire, or blizzard zone, you might want to plan for those types of emergencies.
If you live in a city where civil unrest is constantly brewing, you can plan for it to unfold. You might also want to keep an eye on the global and national news to see what’s likely to happen soon so you can prepare for it.
If supply chain issues are rising, if tension is occurring between two powerful nations, or if forecasters are predicting a harsh winter, you’ll know to get ready in advance for things that are more likely to happen than something like an asteroid or solar flare wiping out half of humanity.
Timely Preparations and Response Plans for Any Crisis
Timed survival planning is essential, and you can apply the concept of timeliness in different ways. Some people are in no rush to plan or act regarding survival, but knowing the clock is ticking can help you get more prepared and plan better.
For example, you can set timed goals for paying off your debt and saving up 3-12 months’ worth of savings for the event of a financial crisis. You can also make timed preparations for when you’ll break ground on your survival homestead, when you begin teaching family members specific skills, and so on.
You might even practice the skills you need to know and time yourself (and the others in your family) to determine how fast they can do things. This might include how quickly everyone can get ready to go to a second location, how long it takes to get there, how fast they can set up a tent, etc.
Being fast with your survival skills – from starting a fire to being able to exit a dangerous situation – is paramount to your success in getting everyone through a situation intact and without having to go through a traumatic outcome.
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Survival prepping already means you’re headed in the right direction. You’re doing something most people will never do for themselves, and they’ll regret it when and if something occurs.
But focusing on specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timely goals when you’re prepping can take your plans to the next level and protect yourself and your loved ones more than if you haphazardly selected what to do next.
Please leave a comment on your survival preparations or ask a question.